| Summary: | Chicory (cichorium intybus) is a perennial herbaceous plant of Asteraceae family, and resistant to cold climate and frost. Chicory root containing 70-94% inulin, based on dry weight is considered as a major source of inulin for industrial production. Inulin is a fructologosaccharide and is a substitute for fat and sugar that is not digestible, but in the colon, it is used by bifidobacteria. Some of these bacteria are used as a periosteum and are very useful for human health. Drying is one of the most important post-harvesting processes of medicinal plants, which plays a major role in the quantity and quality of its active ingredients. To prevent fresh chicory root from deterioration, it should be dried for long-term storage. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of drying in low pressure on the quality and time of extraction of inulin from Chicory root. For this purpose, the chicory roots were first dried at 80 °C under two different oven pressure of 35000 and 75000 Pa for one hour, then the inulin was extracted using diffusion process in hot water for 70 and 150 min. For qualitative evaluation, extracted inulin was analyzed through High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with refractive index (RI) detector. Based on results from HPLC analysis, the dried sample at 750 mbar and extraction time of 150 min had the highest amount of inulin, while the dried sample at 750 mbar and the extraction time of 70 min had the lowest amount of inulin.
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